This week, longtime Arctic Cat veteran Craig Kennedy was named Vice President, Snow & International. The announcement was made by Kevin Holleran, President and CEO of Textron Specialized Vehicles.
In his new role, Kennedy will oversee all aspects of Snowmobile engineering, marketing and sales, including Arctic Cat brand management and marketing strategy, snowmobile sales, dealer development, product planning and new product development. Kennedy will also will lead the international sales team for snowmobiles, side-by-sides, ATVs and personal-transportation vehicles. Craig, who will work from our facility in Thief River Falls, Minn., will report to Holleran and serve as a member of the TSV Senior Leadership Team.
In his 18-plus years at Arctic Cat, Kennedy has been a design engineer for the former Tigershark personal watercraft line; a design supervisor for ATVs; product manager for ATVs and side-by-sides; and international business manager. Most recently he was the director of product development for the side-by-side, ATV and Parts, Garments & Accessories product lines.
Kennedy will relocate back to Thief River Falls, where he had worked for many years.
In his new role, Kennedy is replacing Erik Nelson, who had been in the same position for the past 13 months and was looking to pursue new career adventures.
I’ve worked with Kennedy for all of his 18 years at Arctic Cat, and I’m excited for him, the company and Arctic Cat loyalists. Besides being a full-on motorsports enthusiast (who used to roost metric tons of dirt into my face while practicing motocross at the TRF Falls track), Kennedy is a smart, impassioned Arctic Cat guy through-and-through. I see good things happening with him and his team.
Big congrats to Kennedy (who I’ve already pressured to do an interview for ArcticInsider). And big thanks to the great work done by Nelson.